Its hard to believe to that back in the 1920’s and 1930’s that alcohol use was banned, which is better known as the Prohibition. It was known also as the “dry laws” and was a measure designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the manufacturing and distributing of alcohol. This law was established in the United States when it seemed that not many citizens in the country had been sober. “The leaders of the Prohibition or Temperance movement were alarmed at the drinking behavior of Americans and they were concerned that there was a culture of drinkers among some sectors of the population that with continuing immigration was spreading.” 1 In 1895, the movement grew stronger when the Anti-Saloon League and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union
It was believed that working class men wasted all their wages and spare time on alcohol. It was seen to encourage violence and drunkenness. It was seen as unchristian to drink as it encouraged immortal behaviour and the mistreatment of women. Another reason for the introduction of prohibition was because of racial reasons. Drinking was associated with new immigrants like
Prohibition means the banned of alcohol. They put a stop to alcoholic beverages. America chaned its mind about banneding alcohol beverages because after the prohibition was passed, depression started going on, higher homicides started to rise and congress men and senators were being hypocritical. When prohibition was passed many people wanted alcohol back and were going to do whatever they had to, to get a taste of beer or whiskey. By them doing this made america change there mind about prohibition.
To some, alcohol was considered to be “devil's juice” and was forbidden in some homes. The act of prohibiting alcohol distribution, consumption, import, and export throughout the United States was put in place in the 1920s. The Social experiment of prohibition failed due to a rise in organized crime, massive corruption, and peoples willingness to break the law just to acquire something that
Instead of an estimated decrease in violence, crime and alcohol consumption, it led to an increase in at least violence and crime. When people could not gain access to alcohol the way they were used to, they had to find an alternate source. This led to a huge black market for alcohol and the start for one of America's most infamous gangsters: Al Capone. The alcohol supplied was however no longer produced under legitimate supervision, and had often been spiked with poison and chemicals, which led to an increase in deaths from alcoholic poisoning. The huge black market for alcohol controlled by crime organizations grew so large that many of the criminal groups were able to build their empires mainly on profits from illegal alcohol.
The Tariff placed high taxes on imports leading to a decline in international trade. The United States held many loans with European countries that began to default. Reduction in international market spending in the US, coupled with the high tariffs placed on foreign countries led to unemployment abroad and foreign countries were forced to impose their own tariffs on other countries (Kelly, n.d.). The Great Depression was perhaps most devastating to the individual and family. The Depression was recorded to have decreased the marriage rate which helped lead to a decline in the birth rate.
The higher alcohol content in hard liquor was more effective for getting drunk yet it also took its toll on the population’s health. Prohibition also created a large amount of bootleggers and moonshiners that were producing home made alcohol that was not always safe to drink. People also tried to get alcohol from sources that were still available and legitimate such as alcohol that was produced for medical, industrial and ceremonial purposes. People even attempted to get alcohol by trying to filter the alcohol out of antifreeze. Many of these homemade alcohols contained much higher percentages of alcohol and they sometimes were unsafe to drink which led to several deaths during the prohibition.
Unfortunately many states have taken the easy road and have become over-reliant on the federal government for support. In return they are forced to relinquish power and freedom. This is one of the “cons” to following the federal mandate of the universal MLDA of 21. The main argument against lowering the MLDA again, is the inevitable rise in drunken driving related deaths. In the 1960’s and 1970’s when many states had lowered the MLDA, besides the rise in drunk-driving deaths, studies showed that people raised from childhood in under-21 states were involved in higher rates of alcohol and drug use as adults, and had a higher rate of homicides and suicides.
Massive loss of lives from war, epidemic, disease, and murder led to a struggle to maintain the values that were drivers of the culture. Above internal issues was the arrival of white society which began to strategically break down the structure of Native American communities by targeting their political system. Another distraction at this time was the growth of alcohol in Native American society and it was a problem in many high ranked officials. Leaders such as Red Jacket, Hendrick Aupaumut, Young King, Logan, Skenandoa, and Handsome Lake were all notorious drunkards, which showed poor leadership and hostile environments. Drinking not only took a toll on leaders but also on the society as a whole because money for meats, vegetables, dry goods, and hardware was being spent on alcohol.
America was taking part of what was called the “Red Scare” resulting from the Palmer Raids in 1919 in which 6000 communists were wound up in America. This sense of anti-foreignism was mainly for the fact that communists were nothing but different and Americans were tired of dealing with different nations and at this time Americanism was trying to be found in everyone. One of the ways that this anti-foreignism was manifested was the radical arise of the 1920’s Klu Klux Klan. Unlike the KKK of the 19th century, this Klan wasn’t only anti-African American, but it was anti immigrants, anti-Catholic, and anti-communist and basically anti anything that wasn’t American. Hiram Wesly Evans describes in Document D that the Klan speaks for the